Left of Center (Turner) and Center of Center (Phelps) are screenwriters with satirical views on random headlines of the day. As one conservative Republican puts it: "..to me, it's not funny." and "...I think it is a bad reflection overall and frankly doesn't make me guffaw."

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Republicans All Want to Be Like Reagan

I want you to look at this picture of Ronald Reagan. What do you feel when you look at it? I feel pretty good about America when I see it. I feel a little nostalgic for the era -- mostly for listening to The Cure and playing Intellivision -- but nostalgic nonetheless. Reagan had a way of capturing what is right with America in a single photo op, almost as if the presidency had been arranged by Warner Brothers central casting.

What was really going on around the time of this photo? The rich got richer on the backs of the middle-class. We sold arms to Iran – Iran, people – and used that money to circumvent congress in funding an illegal war. We ignored the nation’s healthcare and infrastructure and saddled my generation with a debt so large it took Clinton’s enormous brain seven years to get it straightened out.

When you hear the Republican candidates from Riu-Giu, to Mitt-Flip-Flop Romney, to John “I’d only vote for a Christian” McCain, to Fred “I can look as good as Reagan on TV” Thompson, begging for Reagan comparisons, I want you to think about the disasters of every Republican administration since Hoover. Every Republican administration in the last 80 years has featured corruption-through-cronyism, laughingly naïve economic theory and failed foreign policy.

Hoover: watched as his evil-minded cronies worsened the great depression, ran up the national debt and failed to get involved in the Eurpean facism crisis.

Eisenhower: Dubbed the “do-nothing” President, his cabinet of cronies was called “eight millionaires and a plumber,” describing his one liberal friend. Despite doing nothing, had the good fortune to preside over the post-WWII economic boom. His few hours off of the golf course were spent siding with Southern bigots against civil rights.

Nixon: The second most corrupt president, after George W. Bush.

Reagan-Bush: See above.

W: 33% percent and dropping. Mission accomplished.

Why in the world are there still Republicans in the U.S? How many failures of thought and conscience is one party allowed? When you hear Republican candidates say they're just like Reagan or are proud to be a Republican, I want you to think of three things: cronyism at your expense, economic disaster and continued disgrace on the international stage.